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| Title: | Multiparty Democracy and Ethnic Politics in Botswana: Grassroots Perspectives |
| Author: | Solway, Jacqueline S. |
| Year: | 1994 |
| Periodical: | African Rural and Urban Studies |
| Volume: | 1 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 73-91 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Botswana |
| Subjects: | Kgalagadi ethnicity multiparty systems Politics and Government Ethnic and Race Relations |
| Abstract: | In the 15 October 1994 elections in Botswana the opposition party (Botswana National Front, BNF) took 13 seats and for the first time in Botswana's political history posed a serious threat to the ruling party (Botswana Democratic Party, BDP). The opposition's strong showing reflects the political maturity of Botswana's multiparty system; it also reflects simmering discontent with the status quo. Although the BDP's fall in popularity can be accounted for, to a significant extent, by the current economic downturn, ethnically based issues and affiliations took on increased importance in this election. The House of Chiefs, a government body composed of chiefs from the so-called eight principal Tswana tribes, together with seven chiefs in a special category of sub-chief, has been a significant staging ground for ethnic struggle. The House of Chiefs has become a symbol for both traditional elite chiefs who perceive their powers eroded by growing State power and bureaucracy and the non-Tswana peoples of the country, largely former subject and/or 'servile' groups, who are no longer willing to accept indirect representation through their former overlords. In order to illustrate the nature of ethnic politics, this paper presents a case study of the Bakgalagadi, a Bantu-speaking former 'servile' group of the Kweneng district. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |